Visiting the Sacred Sites of Kukai: A Guidebook to the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Originally published in Japanese, this renowned guidebook by Tateki Miyazaki offers detailed and practical information on how to make the 1200-kilometer pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku. For example: when is the best season to go, how much does it cost, how to make a daily plan, what to take, what to do at each temple, what rules a pilgrim should follow, how to sleep outside, how to perform takuhatsu and waterfall training, and what to do when the journey is over. In addition, in the second half of the book, there are brief historical descriptions of 238 sacred sites along the pilgrimage route that have some relation to the 8th Century Shingon Buddhist priest Kukai, who is also known as Kobo Daishi.